


101 Miles To Reach You

by BleedingHeart03



Series: Morgan Patelli - Lone Wanderer [1]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout 3
Genre: ASL, Angst, Bisexual Character, Brotherhood of Steel (Fallout), Canon-Typical Violence, Deaf Character, Dont get nasty about it, Enclave (Fallot), Established Relationship, F/M, Gay Character, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Sibling Love, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-24
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-10-15 11:26:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17527850
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BleedingHeart03/pseuds/BleedingHeart03
Summary: Sometimes photos are all we have.





	101 Miles To Reach You

**Author's Note:**

> Idk what’s going on in this chapter. I guess it just introduces characters and shows some of Morgan’s internal conflict :/  
> I’m on tumblr @metal-gear-rrex

Morgan collapses against the rocks that made up the cave Vault 101 was hidden in, pulling Aaron down with her. She lets go of his hand to brushes her hair behind her ears, trying to steady her ragged breaths. Aaron taps her shoulder, and she turns to look at him. 

_Why did we have to leave?_ he signs. _Why did they chase us? Where’s dad?_

Fuck. They’d left the Vault in such a hurry she didn’t even explain to him why. She’s simply threw some of their things in a bag, woke Aaron up, grabbed his hand, and ran. She was glad he was deaf, at least he couldn’t hear the horrible things the Overseer and his men were yelling at them as they ran for their lives. 

_Sorry,_ she signs back. _I should have explained earlier. Dad left for some reason and the Overseer was really mad so he chased us out. I don’t think Dad meant for this to happen. Here, he left a note._ Morgan digs around in the bag until she finds the note from their dad. She hands it to Aaron.

As he reads the note, Morgan looks through the contents of their bag. There’s extra clothes, a little food, basic medical supplies. The gun Amata gave them and some extra ammo for it. Morgan gingerly sets it aside, careful not to point it at her or Aaron, before returning to the bag. She pulls out her extra pair of glasses, breathing a sigh of relief to see that they weren’t broken. At the bottom of the bag is a small book, it’s leather cover soft and brown. A photo album. She holds it in her hands, almost scared to open it, as if exposing the pages to the air will make them disappear. She takes a deep breath, the flips through it, looking for her favorite pages. Instead she lands on one of her least favorite. It’s not that it’s a bad photo. It’s black and white, of her, Aaron, and their dad, standing together, smiling, in the dim light of the reactor level. She and Aaron stand next to each other, almost identical, the only difference being Morgan’s hair, which is slightly longer than Aaron’s. Their dad stands behind them, a hand on each of their shoulders. The photo was taken Morgan and Aaron’s 10th birthday, both wearing the matching hats they got, holding up the BB gun they’d taken turns firing, showing off their new Pip-Boys. It’s actually a really nice photo. To anyone else, what she dislikes about it would be seen as a tiny detail, nothing to worry about, insignificant. But, to her, it’s like a slap in the face each time she sees it, reminding her that things weren’t always this way, telling her that maybe she’s been living lie for so long she doesn’t even realize. She dislikes it because she isn’t herself in it. She’s still _him._ In the picture she’s not Morgan, Aaron Patelli’s twin sister, James Patelli’s daughter, who’s voice is a little too deep for a girl her age. No. In the picture she’s still _Taxton_ , Aaron Patelli’s twin _brother_ , James Patelli’s _son_ , who’s hair is always a little too long and who likes to play dress up with _his_ friend Amata a little too much. 

Morgan sighs, flipping to a different photo, trying not to think about how she still looks a little too much like Aaron, telling herself she looks more like Amata than Butch, more like Cathrine than James. She turns her gaze back to the book in her hands, flipping through the photos, looking more and more like herself as time goes on. There’s photos from birthdays, Christmases,dances, parties, photos of everyday life that were pretty enough to want to save forever. There’s her and Aaron standing together, smiling after taking the GOAT. There’s one of their 18th birthday party, Morgan leaning against Butch with her eyes closed, Aaron signing something to him. There’s one of a 13 year old Aaron smiling after coming out to their dad, tears of relief still fresh on his face. She finally lands on the last picture in the book, at the very back. It’s a simple photo of their parents, James and Cathrine Patelli, smiling against a background she doesn’t recognize. Morgan runs her fingers over it, remembering the way her dad would smile sadly whenever he looked at it. Now she’s the one with a soft, sad smile on her face. Tears prick at the back of her eyes, and the smile quickly disappears. Goddamn it. What the hell were they going to do? Their dad leaves and the get chased out of the Vault into a world they never seen before. How were they supposed to survive? They were going to die out here in some violent way just like they were warned when they first learned there was life beyond the big steel door and no one was going to know and no one was going to care and-

A clump of dirt hits Morgan on the side of her face, startling her. She drops the book into her lap and looks up. “What the hell?” she shouts as she wipes it off with her hand. Then she realizes that no one else was around but Aaron, meaning he probably threw it at her. And he was deaf, which mean it was pretty unlikely that he had heard her. She turns toward him, glaring. _Why did you do that?_ she signs. 

_I had to get your attention,_ he replies. 

_You could have tapped my shoulder or something._

_I tried that and you didn’t notice. Then you started looking all sad and shit and I couldn’t think of what else to do so I threw some dirt at you._

_I wasn’t getting sad._

Aaron just looks at her. 

_Okay. Maybe a little,_ she signs. _Why were you trying to get my attention?_

 _I wanted to know if we’re just going to sit here all day or if we’re going to find a better place to sleep._ He pauses. _And maybe try to find dad._

 _Yeah, yeah. Okay. Just let me pack this stuff back up._ Morgan nearly puts everything back inside the bag. She tucks the photo album in between the layers of clothes, protecting the one of the last few things left of their life inside the Vault. As she closes the bag, Aaron stands up beside her, picking up the BB gun he’d grabbed before they left. He holds his other hand out to her, offering to help he up. Morgan takes his hand, and, as he begins to pull her up, throws a fistful of dirt in his face.

“This is revenge, asshole!” she laughs. She knows he can’t hear her. But maybe someone else did. Maybe they’ll think she’s tough, not to be messed with. Maybe they won’t know that she’s breaking on the inside, wounding how the hell shes supposed to go in a world she’s never known.

**Author's Note:**

> I might go back and reread this at a later time to look for errors but please let me know if you find any. Thanks for reading btw :)


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